Choosing Your Obstacles
Overview Choosing to bring gas clouds , large or small asteroids , or large or small debris clouds to a tournament is an important strategic decision. This decision should be made in conjunction with a full understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your squad, your preferred game play, and in tournament play, knowledge of the anticipated meta. Asteroids.png|Asteroids Debris Clouds.png|Debris Clouds Gas Clouds.png|Gas Clouds Importace of Squad Strengths In general, your strategic decisions should maximize your strengths. This enables your squad to perform the way you intend in the most efficient way. Obstacles generally create a negative effect on the battlefield, so if obstacles create a positive effect for you, that is ideal. Upgrades and pilots like trick shot, tractor beams, Dash Rendar and Blackout fit into this category. Similarly, if the obstacles don't create a positive effect for you, they should limit you as little as possible. If your list clears stress well, debris likely limit you less than your opponent. If your ships are maneuverable, large obstacles likely limit you less than your opponent. Importance of Squad Weaknesses In addition to maximizing your strengths, strategic choices should minimize your weaknesses when possible. For example, if your squad has issues clearing stress debris will not be a good choice. If you have a few large ships with wide arcs, you need to maximize your firing time, maximize your actions and prevent your ships from losing shots. Avoiding large asteroids is typically imperative. Style of Play Knowing yourself is important when making strategic decisions. If you know that you are not a patient player, you want to make decisions that will benefit you when making aggressive choices, as opposed to limiting you to patient options. You may want small, spread out obstacles. In contrast, if you are a very patient player, you want to make strategic decisions that force your opponent to be patient and punish aggressive behavior. Importance of the Meta Some thought and research into the expected meta at a tournament is necessary, both in choosing a squad and what obstacles to take with that squad. For example, you may consider that a set of 3 gas clouds is ideal for your squad in most situations because there are minimum consequences to flying through them. However, aces that can double reposition, can move behind gas clouds and increase their defense. If your squad cannot consistently obtain unobstructed shots on those aces, you will give your opponent a significant advantage. If you expect the meta to include a significant amount of double-repositioning aces, you might choose a different obstacle in order to better match up against those squads. If you don't expect the meta to include a significant amount of double-repositioning ships, you might consider the benefit to be worththe risk. Trade-Offs When resources are limited, most strategies will involve some sort of trade-off. In a trade-off you choose to give up one capability for another. For example, you may choose to include upgrades to shore up your ability to handle a particular type of asteroid. You may choose to bring an obstacle that is less than ideal for your squad because that obstacle would provide a greater benefit to your opponent. Conventional wisdom can be applied to squad building, and is helpful when placing obsacles, but there is no one right answer. Knowing your list, yourself and the meta will help you to make strategic trade-offs that benefit you and hurt your opponent.